First Impressions - First Time Mac user

Well my HP 15" was getting on so I decided to bite the bullet and get a Mac.

I was deciding between the 13" Air vs 13" rMBP and posted a question in the Air forum asking for opinions. I was dead set on getting the 13" Air due to the portability and not being too fussed about the Retina display, however, the local shop here in New Zealand doesn't have 13" Air in the 8gb RAM configuration, which was disappointing.

But!! At the same time they were having a 10% off of Macs, so I decided to get the 13" rMBP Haswell, 8gb RAM, 256gb, middle config instead which works out to be roughly the same as the Air with a similar specs on the apple.com website.

Have been using it for a few days now and first impressions are good.

Portability
This new Haswell 13" inch model is LIGHT!!! To me it feels just as light as the Air actually (well it's not the same weight, but it feels light enough). It is thicker than the Air, but I think it makes it easier to grab and move around. The footprint though is smaller than the Air which I think makes it much more compact. I never liked the big fat bezel on the Air. To me I think it's the perfect Macbook portability wise.

Screen
I'd have to say that I am very happy with the retina display. It's really really nice to look at and I think I would have regretted if I had gotten the Air and being stuck with an older technology.

Operating System
"Wow" is all I can say coming from a Windows computer. Spaces is really useful. I have Safari opened in 1 space, Mail opened in 1 space, Skype windows opened in 1 space...etc.. and move around with the finger gestures... Very very handy and useful.

Overall
I'm pretty happy with the experience so far overall. I was thinking whether I have paid too much for a 13" laptop, but I do think that it should be able to serve me well for a good 2-3 years without struggling too much. What surprises me the most is the weight. This thing is very very light. I couldn't believe how light it is considering that many people on this form have commented on how much more portable the Air is to the rMBP.

I'll post more of my other thoughts later once I've used it a bit more...

Spaces was really, really useful but Apple killed that in OSX 7 What you're seeing is a very poor replacement refered to as Mission Control. That said, you won't miss what you never had so enjoy your future in the windowless world

Congratulations on your decision!, I made the change from Windows to Mac in 2010 and couldn't be happier!, Mac stuff is more expensive than Windows counterparts but they have far far better quality, durability and off course a better resale price.

Please add some additional posts on your user experience as I am considering making the jump from PC to rMBP.

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One thing to add regarding the trackpad and gestures.

On the 15" HP I had to use the mouse cos the trackpad was just so crap. I never thought I could live without a mouse - but I was wrong.

The combination of the large trackpad and the gestures made me forget the mouse completely. By setting up a different program in each "space", all you needed to do when you need to use a particular program is a 3-finger swipe across left/right - and BAM! you're there. Switching between Safari/Mail/Skype/Line is literally a quick "flick of the finger". No more reliance on a mouse, trying to find a surface to put it on, etc. No more trying to click open a program, etc.

It's like having 4-5 different desktops all at your disposal at a "flick of the fingers". Also going "back" to a previous webpage is simply a 2-finger swipe across. (instead of pointing the mouse to click "back").

Congrats again! Let us know what you think of the battery life as well.

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Hey, I got a new one as well .. 13" rMBP Haswell, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM ..

The battery seems to last only for about 6 hours with normal browsing and streaming videos rather than the 9 hours of browsing/iTunes-movies as they claim. Are you getting good battery life experience?

I used optimum setting for Brightness, quit unused Apps, turned off Bluetooth, cleared those NRAM and PVRAM settings .. nothing seemed to work.

Hey, I got a new one as well .. 13" rMBP Haswell, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM ..

The battery seems to last only for about 6 hours with normal browsing and streaming videos rather than the 9 hours of browsing/iTunes-movies as they claim. Are you getting good battery life experience?

I used optimum setting for Brightness, quit unused Apps, turned off Bluetooth, cleared those NRAM and PVRAM settings .. nothing seemed to work.

Click to expand...

My wife is getting ~10 hours browsing web, doing homework, playing facebook games. She hasn't played with any settings so the brightness is whatever it came stock at. Bluetooth is on because she is using a magic mouse.

Hey, I got a new one as well .. 13" rMBP Haswell, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM ..

The battery seems to last only for about 6 hours with normal browsing and streaming videos rather than the 9 hours of browsing/iTunes-movies as they claim. Are you getting good battery life experience?

I used optimum setting for Brightness, quit unused Apps, turned off Bluetooth, cleared those NRAM and PVRAM settings .. nothing seemed to work.

Click to expand...

I haven't been streaming much on my machine, yet. Just the occasional YouTube videos every now and then, and for those times I am taking online classes. The majority of my usage so far is comprised of web browsing in Chrome with at least 10+ tabs at any given time, iMessage, and Word. With that sort of usage, the battery life indicator says I should be getting around 11-12 hours at 90+% battery life, which is pretty insane for being a non-MBA laptop. This is with screen brightness at about 60%, no Bluetooth, and WiFi.

I have watched videos through VLC off my network and did see a dramatic decrease in estimated battery life, so perhaps it all falls in line.

This is also my first Mac, and I really love it. It is runs really smooth, and OS X and the trackpad are just brilliant compared to Windows.

My battery life in the two days I have it has been around 7 hours, with much downloading, installing, a first backup with Time Capsule, and screen brightness most of the time above 50%. I think with more daily use I could get 10 hours.

I haven't been streaming much on my machine, yet. Just the occasional YouTube videos every now and then, and for those times I am taking online classes. The majority of my usage so far is comprised of web browsing in Chrome with at least 10+ tabs at any given time, iMessage, and Word. With that sort of usage, the battery life indicator says I should be getting around 11-12 hours at 90+% battery life, which is pretty insane for being a non-MBA laptop. This is with screen brightness at about 60%, no Bluetooth, and WiFi.

I have watched videos through VLC off my network and did see a dramatic decrease in estimated battery life, so perhaps it all falls in line.

My wife is getting ~10 hours browsing web, doing homework, playing facebook games. She hasn't played with any settings so the brightness is whatever it came stock at. Bluetooth is on because she is using a magic mouse.

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Thank you for your replies.

I think I found the culprit to my battery drain. I think it is mostly the Flash player, irrespective of the browser (be it Safari, Firefox or Chrome). Playing any Flash based video drops the battery curve pretty steep. I don't know how many other users have experienced this.

Playing a 1080p movie on VLC was heavy on the battery - which is understandable. After playing it for 1 hour I switched to earphones, which did not make any impact on the estimated remaining time. After further 30 minutes, I quit VLC and as expected the estimated remaining time went up by couple of minutes. But it never ever looked like it would last 9 hours as claimed by Phil Schiller during the Keynote - to be able to watch an entire trilogy of a movie on a single charge.

Since battery is considered as a consumable, I am not sure if taking it to the Apple Store would help. Or am I being paranoid here?

Brightness was always at 4 dots, BT was always Off, Keyboard backlight was at 1 dot and other optimum settings were in effect.

Please share your experience if there is anything significant. Thanks.

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